During these initial years, Thakkar worked with his father for some time in Mumbai, contributing to a 1971 Films Division of India documentary, and playing parts in television and radio shows.
[5] In the United States, after graduating, Thakkar got a job offer from an animation studio[4] and worked for a few television advertisements, developing their visual effects.
"[1] At PDI and DreamWorks, Thakkar worked on several films, including Forces of Nature, Antz, The Legend of Bagger Vance, The Peacemaker and A Simple Wish.
[11] After leaving DreamWorks in 2002, Thakkar worked in PIXIA Corp from 2003 to 2013 as a Chief Architect and was the Vice President of Technology in the area of satellite imagery.
[13][4] Thakkar won the 2016 Academy Award for scientific and technical achievement for his "groundbreaking design"[a] of DreamWorks Animation Media Review System.
[10][7][15] As per the Academy, these set of awards are bestowed upon individuals who have contributed significantly over time (and not necessarily in the past year) to the motion picture industry.
[9][16] Thakkar commented in a January 2016 interview to India-West, "It is quite humbling to be recognized by AMPAS (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) with a technical achievement award... It’s a wonderful feeling to know that the work we did two decades ago was still in use by the film industry.
[2] The award presenters noted Thakkar and Chuang's pioneer contributions in enabling stereoscopic 3D viewing for movies and especially over the film Shrek.